Tunisia will launch a global tender on April 27 to build 2.5 billion Tunisian dinars (USD1 billion) solar and renewable wind power plants, Prime Minister Youssef Chahed said on Thursday.

Speaking at an energy conference that the tender aims to produce 1,000 megawatts of electricity from solar and wind power in the regions of Kairouan, Tozeur, Tataouine, Sidi Bouzid and Qebli without giving details.

Tunisia said in March it would invest 12 billion dinars in electricity and other energy projects from 2018 to 2020.

At that time, it mentioned projects including a 600-megawatt submarine power cable connecting Tunisia’s electricity network with Italy at a cost of 600 million euros and two power plants with a capacity of 450 megawatts each.